editor posted on March 04, 2010 06:37
To be seen pottering along the highways and byways of Luton in her Mini Clubman, her trusted Scottie Malcolm at her side, our super sleuthing property rental expert Ms Lucinda Newell is on the case on your behalf!
The Mysterious Case of the Shrinking House........
According to the Association of Residential Letting Agents' (ARLA) most recent survey, 55 per cent of members have seen an increase in tenants struggling to meet their rental payments. Despite being a decrease on the previous quarter, this figure remains worryingly high.
This brought to mind a situation a fellow landlord and friend of mine had encountered. The Mysterious Case of the Shrinking House........
Now, as good as tenant referencing can be, it can't weed out all the problem tenants - namely those with the proverbial 'Screw Lose'! If you add this lack of sanity to a desire to wheedle ones way out of paying what one owes, you have on your hands a potentially troublesome situation!
This case first came to light when my friend was contacted by his agent for the third month in a row concerning the short payment of rent. The agent had been in touch with the Tenant concerned and requested the underpayment be paid immediately. Strangely though the tenant replied “No ' I'm no longer getting what I paid for and I am sick and tired of having to share....” “Share what?” the Agent replied.
But the tenant refused to elaborate any further, instead insisting a meeting was held between the Landlord, Agent and herself.
Intrigued to know more (and also desirous of his full rent) my friend agreed to the meeting.
The day of the meeting arrived and having collected the agent from his office my friend drew up outside his property. He was met by his tenant (a lady of a certain age - and yes I am allowed to say that as I am one myself!) who took them into the property.
“What is this all about?” my friend asked. “Why won't you pay the full agreed rent?”
The tenant went on to explain that she would no longer be paying the full amount of rent as the house was smaller than when she moved in - it was, in fact, shrinking! Slightly taken aback by this my friend enquired how she knew this to be the case. She replied that the tiles in the bathroom were falling off the wall and this was because the house was shrinking and she therefore felt she should not have to pay the rent on a 3 bedroom detached property, which, at the rate it was going, would only be a two bedroom detached property by Christmas! The “smashed-out” tiles were found at the end of the garden!!
Having dismissed the story as a ridiculous attempt to get out of the rent my friend and his agent were on their way out of the property when the agent remembered the tenants comment about sharing. The agent asked the tenant to explain the comment. “Oh that” she said... “The house is haunted by one of his relatives'' she explained pointing to the landlord, ''and I don't see why I should have to pay for his family to stay! If you don’t believe me you can ask my son because he talks to the ghost all the time!”
With slightly bemused expressions my friend and his agent left the property filled with a resolve to get the full amount of rent owed - and also to not renew the tenancy next time!!!
Whilst it is crucial that agents and landlords engage in a careful selection process for tenants, you can‘t reference for everything and every now and then, a troubled soul will slip through the net! Having spoken to Rob Wellstead, MD of Lenwell, I know that he would have reminded the tenant in the strongest possible terms that ''sub-letting'' (even to a ghost) was forbidden under the tenancy agreement!!